Jeff Diamond spent 23 years with the Minnesota Vikings organization, the final eight as general manager before moving to Nashville and becoming president of the Tennessee Titans, who play host to the Vikings in the season opener on Sunday afternoon.

These days, Diamond, 63, hosts a daily drive-time sports talk show in Nashville.

Associated Press: Tony Avelar<br />Tennessee running back Derrick Henry, here running past Oakland’s Bruce Irvin (51) and Cory James during their exhibition game on Aug. 27, may be a steal of the 2016 NFL draft, according to former Vikings and Titans executive Jeff Diamond.

Before the Vikings lost quarterback Teddy Bridgewater for the season last week with a knee injury, Diamond figured the Vikings as a sure winner over the Titans. Now, he sees Sunday’s game as a tossup.

“The Titans are an improved team over last year, which didn’t take much because they were 3-13,” Diamond said. “But they’re definitely improved with some good draft choices — Jack Conklin (from Michigan State) on the offensive line, Derrick Henry (Alabama) is going to be a really good running back. (Henry) was a steal in the second round.”

Diamond said Tennessee is “shaky” at wide receiver and in the secondary.

“I don’t know that the Vikings are going to be able to take advantage of that in terms of passing without Bridgewater, and since (newly signed QB Sam) Bradford’s just coming in the door,” he said. “But the weak link for the Titans is their secondary and a shaky receiving corps.”

Henry and DeMarco Murray should be a good one-two punch running game, Diamond said.

“And they’ll go as far as (quarterback) Marcus Mariota improves this year,” he said. “He’s the real deal, but he still needs a better supporting cast with the receiving corps. Delanie Walker is a Pro Bowl tight end.

“If their best receiver (rookie Tajae Sharpe from Massachusetts) is a fifth-round draft choice, and they picked up (veteran wideout) Andre Johnson basically after he was let go by Indianapolis … they’re just a little shaky.”

The Vikings will defeat the Titans 24-21, according to PredictionMachine.com, which relies on myriad of statistics for analysis. But Minnesota will lose its next game 26-23 to the Green Bay Packers en route to an 8-8 season, the machine predicts.

Bargain: Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, 29, who has 39 home runs and 92 RBIs and is hitting .278 for baseball’s worst team, is signed through 2018 with a contract averaging $5 million a season. He’s making $3 million this season. Dozier leads the Twins in homers, batting average, RBIs and hits (148). Seattle second baseman Robinson Cano, 33, who has 32 homers and 86 RBIs and is hitting .304, is making $24 million this season and signed through 2023.

It’s noteworthy that Dozier can become a free agent after the 2018 season, the final season for teammate Joe Mauer’s $184 million, eight-year ($23 million per annum) contract, when cash should become more available for others.

It looks like the Twins will have the No. 1 pick in June’s major league draft. The top-regarded prospect is a right-handed pitcher, Kyle Wright from Vanderbilt. The No. 1 overall pick can expect a signing bonus in the $6.5 million range.

Alex Kirilloff, 18, the prep outfielder from Pittsburgh the Twins signed for $2.8 million as the No. 15 overall pick in this year’s draft, hit .306 with seven home runs in 55 games for Elizabethton in rookie league.

Deephaven’s Tim Herron, who has won four times on the PGA Tour, will host day-long Ryder Cup parties on Lake Minnetonka Sept. 30-Oct. 1 beginning at noon at Lumpy’s Lounge.

Vikings rookie wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, asked if different passing styles of Bridgewater, Shaun Hill and now Bradford make it difficult for a receiver: “Timing wise. It’s not difficult. But you’ve got to find that certain timing with each quarterback. With reps, that’ll come, and you’ll figure it out along the way.”

Paul Scruggs, who was a senior at Southport High School in Indianapolis and a potential Mr. Basketball Indiana for this season, has transferred to the Prolific Prep program in California, where Gary Trent Jr. is headed for his senior season. Trent also would have been a heavy favorite for Mr. Basketball Minnesota had he remained at Apple Valley for his final year.

Zach Zenner, the former Eagan running back, had the second-most carries (19 for 47 yards) for the Detroit Lions during exhibition season and has made the team’s active roster for a second straight season.

Ex-major league pitchers Mark Hamburger and Caleb Thielbar of the St. Paul Saints touched 94 mph against Lincoln last week.

Hamburger, the Saints’ ace from Mounds View, has decided to pitch in Melbourne, Australia, beginning in November. Hamburger’s agent, by the way, is Billy Martin Jr., son of the late Twins manager.

New Wild coach Bruce Boudreau will have a set of rules with which he expects players to abide, and he expects that they will abide.

“You know what, they’re all grown men, and I’m not going to be phoning guys for curfew or anything,” he said. “I can’t picture myself ever doing that. We expect them to be intelligent guys that take care of themselves.

“They eat properly now, they do everything. It’s not like it was in the ‘70s and ‘60s and ‘80s when guys went out … even in the WHA days, all we did was party, and playing was almost after the fact. I’m not worried about that.”

Boudreau is a 6-handicap golfer, but he doesn’t touch a club once training camp begins. He has bought a home in Woodbury.

No jersey changes are planned for the Wild this season.

Look for Jac Sperling, a member of the Wild’s board of directors and who orchestrated much of the St. Paul team’s expansion to the NHL, to consult for Las Vegas’ expansion franchise.

Condolences to the family of Marv Jorde, the former Gopher and teammate of Herb Brooks and beloved Minnesota amateur hockey legend who died from cancer last Thursday.

Grand opening for Wild owner Craig Leipold’s “Herbie’s on the Park” restaurant adjacent to Xcel Energy Center is Sept. 24. Among drinks will be Brooks’ favorite, the Moscow Mule.

With the Gophers’ victory over Indiana State on Saturday, Minnesota is now 28-23 in games played at TCF Bank Stadium.

J.C. Hassenauer (6 feet 2, 299 pounds) from Woodbury got some time on No. 1 Alabama’s offensive line as a junior backup in the Tide’s 52-6 victory over Southern California last Saturday.
Nearly 80 percent of Alabama’s roster is comprised of four- and five-star recruits. The Gophers have had one four-star recruit, Jeff Jones, no longer with the team.

Bud Chapman, famous for his “Infamous Golf Hole” paintings, as well as work by late St. Paul artist LeRoy Neiman, will be available at Bill Mack’s big golf art show during Ryder Cup week at his Griffin Gallery in Bloomington, with Chapman appearing on Sept. 28.

Bob Guzy, Bill Kozlak, Dick Walters, Steve Walters, John Warian and Bob Wojtowicz will be honored at the East Side Old Timers 62nd reunion on Thursday evening at Holy Cross Kolbe Center in Northeast Minneapolis.

Jackie (Carroll) Baker, an All-America women’s hockey player at the University of St. Thomas, joins her mother, Mary (Speltz) Carroll, who is a member of the St. Catherine University Athletic Hall of Fame for volleyball, for induction next Saturday.

Julie Manning, who becomes Gophers executive associate A.D. and fills the senior woman administrator position left vacant with the departure of Beth Goetz for Connecticut, begins work on Monday.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Word is Jordan Spieth of the United States’ Ryder Cup team will rent a house on Lake Minnetonka for $135,000 for a week for the matches against Europe at Hazeltine National in Chaska.
One house adjacent the Hazeltine course is renting for $65,000.

The revelation of multiple knee ligament repair for Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater tells all the more why the team traded for Sam Bradford. It looks like a two-year recovery for Bridgewater.

Life in the NFL: It was December 2012 that Vikings defensive lineman Everson Griffen intercepted a pass from now-teammate Bradford, who was with the St. Louis Rams, and returned in 29 yards for a TD.

“He threw it across the middle, and I pick-sixed him,” Griffen said last week.
Griffen, now in the same locker room, said he hasn’t reminded Bradford of the play.

The independent minor league St. Paul Saints are expected to make money this season.
The major league Minnesota Twins project to lose money for the first time since moving to Target Field in 2010, although the losses will be minimal.

The Saints set a regular-season club attendance record, averaging nearly 8,500 fans per game at CHS Field.

The Twins are averaging nearly 25,000 per game at Target Field, but have a player payroll of $105 million.

The Saints’ payroll is about $165,000.

The Twins will lose money despite getting about $5 million from baseball’s revenue sharing plan. There were seasons in the Metrodome when the Twins received as much as $30 million in revenue sharing.

The first few years at Target Field, the Twins paid into revenue sharing. Major League Baseball has become a $9 billion per year industry.

In his previous two starts, ex-Twin Ricky Nolasco, now of the Los Angeles Angels, shut out Cincinnati with a four-hit complete game, then lost 3-2 to Oakland, which managed just two hits but three runs in six innings.

The Vikings have 9-to-1 odds to win the NFC championship, according to Bovada-Las Vegas. The Packers, who the Vikings host next Sunday, are favored at 15-to-4.

Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher, who is in his seventh season working for Craig Leipold, on his relationship with his boss: “Craig has been unbelievable — there’s been only one time I think I’ve received a text during a game, basically saying ‘what the heck is going on?’ ”

That was during Fletcher’s first season in Minnesota. The Wild were playing Chicago in St. Paul.

“After the second period, I think we were down 5-1; we got booed off the ice, but we ended up winning in a shootout,” Fletcher recalled. “I got the text in the second period, and after we won the game, he didn’t send one right away. I was kind of hoping he’d send one back.”

Terry Ryan, who was fired as the Twins’ GM in July, is doing fine away from the game and actually stopped by the team’s offices the other day for a going-away gathering of one of his former assistants.

Parking lots near the Vikings’ new stadium were charging $40 for the exhibition game against the Rams. Prices are expected to increase for next Sunday’s game against the Packers.

OVERHEARDTwins President Dave St. Peter, on a mention that his team isn’t doing well: “That’s an understatement.”

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